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Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The first Holmes story, A Study In Scarlet, was released in 1887. The final, The Adventure of the Shoscombe Old Place, was released in 1927. In all, Doyle wrote four novels and fifty-six short stories. The Holmes stories are set in late 1800's and early 1900's London. Holmes is famous for his use of logic and deductive reasoning, and for finding and making use of the most minute details in a case. Holmes is most likely the best known fictional detective. Most of the stories are narrated by Dr. John H. Watson, Holmes' friend and biographer. Two are narrated by Holmes himself, and two other are written in 3rd person. The stories would appear in The Strand Magazine over a period of forty years. The stories cover a period from about 1875 to 1903, with a final mission in 1914. The stories were stylised in a late-Victiorian fasion and read as such. Sherlock Holmes has been portrayed by more people than any other fictional character and, in 1964, The Times reported that the Sherlock Holmes stories sell second only to the Bible. Biography Life Before Dr. Watson In his college days, Holmes spends a month with his only friend, Victor Trevor, at the Trevor estate in Norfolk. While there, Holmes amazes his host, Victor's father, who had been a Justice of Peace and a landowner besides. He had made his fortune in the goldfields in Australia. Among Holmes's deductions, the young detective discovers that the elder Trevor had once been connected to someone with the initials J. A. whom he now wishes to forget. At this point, Trevor passes out on the table. It seems that Holmes has broached upon a touchy subject. When the older man comes to, he relates how J. A. had been an old lover. Holmes views the elder Trevor's explanation with skepticism. Holmes perceives that he is making his host uncomfortable and decides to take his leave. The evening before he does this, another older man suddenly appears at the house. Visibly perturbed, the elder Trevor rushes to procure a shot of brandy before greeting the guest. It turns out that the two had been shipmates, some 30 years prior. This old acquaintance, by the name of Hudson, secures employment with the elder Trevor. Soon afterwards, Holmes and his friend find Mr. Trevor drunk. Holmes spends the next seven weeks at his chemestry experiments. His studies are interrupted when a telegram arrives from young Trevor, begging him to come back to Norfolk. Upon arriving, Holmes is told that the elder Trevor has been in a critical state since suffering a stroke which coincided with the arrival of a certain letter. The two soon discover that the elder Trevor has died during Holmes's arrival. After Holmes had left the house seven weeks earlier, it seems that this Hudson who had come looking for work proved to be as unruly an employee as could be imagined. He had demanded to be promoted from gardener to butler and had got what he wanted. He had taken unforgivable liberties which would normally have resulted in an employee's dismissal. He was often drunk. Victor could not stand him and would have beaten Hudson up if he had been younger. The other staff were just as scandalized by Hudson's behaviour as Victor was. For some reason, Victor's father never reprimanded his old shipmate. Then, without warning, Hudson announced that he had grown tired of Norfolk and that he would be going to see Beddoes, another old shipmate, in Hampshire. Now, Holmes's friend had become thin and careworn by the ordeal. He had thought that the trouble was over when Hudson had left. To frustrate his hopes, the post brought the fatal letter from Fordingbridge, Hampshire. It read: "the supply of game for London is going steadily up. Head-keeper Hudson, we believe, has been now told to receive all orders for fly-paper and for preservation of your hen pheasant's life." This cryptic message had related nothing to Victor. It is some time, even, before Holmes sees anything in it. Holmes discovers that, if one reads every third word, beginning with the first, an intelligible message emerges. It reads: "the game is up. Hudson has told all. Fly for your life." Holmes deduces that "the game" must be blackmail. Hudson is in possession of some information connected to some guilty secret concerning the elder Trevor. The old man's dying words to his doctor give further evidence. On these instructions, they find a confession in Mr. Trevor's Japanese Cabinet. The elder Mr. Trevor had once borne the name James Armitage (initials: J. A.) and had been a criminal having embezzled money from the bank where he worked and been caught. He was sentenced to Transportation. Once on the ship, the Gloria Scott, bound for Australia from Falmouth, Armitage found out from a neighbouring prisoner that there was a conspiracy to take over the ship. The neighbour, Jack Prendergast, had financed the scheme out of the nearly £250,000 in unrecovered money from his crime. Many of the crew, even officers, were in his employ, and even the chaplain, who was not truly a clergyman at all. He, while pretending to minister to the prisoners, was actually furnishing them with pistols and other equipment to be used when the time was right. Armitage also drew his other neighbour, Evans, into the scheme. As might be expected, all did not go as planned. The takeover was accomplished unexpectedly when the ship's doctor discovered a pistol while treating a prisoner. The prisoners then had to make their move right away or they would lose the element of surprise. In the ensuing mêlée, many men were killed, and there arose a dispute between Prendergast with his supporters and a group including Armitage over what to do with the few loyal crewmen still left alive. Armitage and others would not stand for coldblooded murder. They asked to be cast adrift in a small boat to make their way as they would. Shortly after leaving in their small boat, the Gloria Scott blew up as the result of the violence spreading to where the gunpowder was kept. The men in the small boat, among whom was also Evans, hurried back to the site and rescued one survivor — Hudson. The next day, as luck would have it, the men were rescued by another ship, the Hotspur, also bound for Australia. They passed themselves off as survivors from a passenger ship and once in Australia, headed for the goldfields. Armitage changed his name to Trevor, and Evans changed his name to Beddoes. Both later returned to England as rich men. All had gone well until Hudson had suddenly shown up. Since no scandal involving the Gloria Scott ever follows the odd message from Beddoes (Evans), and since neither Hudson nor Evans are ever heard from again, the Police come to believe that Hudson had done away with Beddoes. Holmes posits that Evans may have killed Hudson, labouring under a misapprehension regarding the latter's silence and fled with as much money as he could lay his hands on. In later years, Holmes recounts to Watson the events arising after a visit from a university acquaintance, Reginald Musgrave in 1879. Musgrave visits Holmes after the disappearance of two of his domestic staff, Rachel Howells, a maid, and Richard Brunton, the longtime butler. The pair vanished after Musgrave had dismissed Brunton for secretly reading a family document, the Musgrave Ritual. The Ritual, which dates from the 17th century, reads: 'Whose was it?' 'His who is gone.' 'Who shall have it?' 'He who will come.' ('What was the month?' 'The sixth from the first.') 'Where was the sun?' 'Over the oak.' 'Where was the shadow?' 'Under the elm.' 'How was it stepped?' 'North by ten and by ten, east by five and by five, south by two and by two, west by one and by one, and so under.' 'What shall we give for it?' 'All that is ours.' 'Why should we give it?' 'For the sake of the trust.' Musgrave caught Brunton in the library at two o'clock one morning. Not only had he unlocked a cabinet and taken out the document in question, but he also had what looked like a chart or map, which he promptly stuffed into a pocket upon seeing his employer watching him. Brunton besought Musgrave not to dishonour him by dismissing him, and asked for a month's time to invent some reason for leaving, making it seem as though he was leaving of his own accord. Musgrave granted him a week. The reader learns later that Brunton wanted the time for something else. A few days later, Brunton disappeared, leaving behind most of his belongings. His bed had not been slept in. No sign could be found of him. The maid, Rachel Howells, who was also Brunton's former lover, had an hysterical fit when asked about Brunton's whereabouts, repeating over and over that he was gone. She was in such a state that another servant was posted to sit up with her at night. Eventually, however, the guarding servant nodded off one night, and the hysterical Rachel Howells escaped through a window. Her footprints led to the edge of the mere, and ended there. Musgrave had the mere dragged, but only a sack containing some rusty mangled bits of metal, and some coloured stones or glass was found. Rachel Howells was never heard from again. Holmes looked upon the case not as three mysteries, but as one. He considered the ritual. It was a meaningless, absurd tradition to Musgrave, and apparently to all his ancestors going back more than two centuries, but Holmes — and Brunton, too, Holmes suspected — saw it as something very different. He quickly realized that it was a set of instructions for finding something. Ascertaining the height of the oak, which was still standing, and the position of the elm, which was now gone, Holmes performed a few calculations and paced out the route to whatever awaited him, with Musgrave now eagerly following him. It was quite instructive to Holmes that Brunton had recently asked about the old elm tree's height as well, and that he was apparently quite intelligent. The two men found themselves inside a doorway, momentarily disappointed, until they realized that there was the last instruction, "and so under". There was a cellar under where they were standing, as old as the house. Finding their way into it, they saw that the floor had been cleared to expose a stone slab with an iron ring on it. Holmes thought it wise to bring the police in at this point. He and a burly Sussex policeman manage to lift the slab off the little hole that it was covering, and inside, they found an empty, rotten chest, and Brunton, who had been dead for several days. There were no marks on him. He had likely suffocated. Holmes then put everything together for his rather shocked client. Brunton had deduced the ritual's meaning, at least insofar as it led to something valuable. He had determined the elm tree's height by asking his master, had paced out the instructions — and Holmes had later even found a peg hole in the lawn made by Brunton — had found the hiding place in the old cellar, but then had found it impossible to lift the stone slab himself. So, he had been forced to draw someone else into his treasure hunt. He had unwisely chosen Rachel Howells, who hated him. The two of them could have lifted the slab up, but they would have needed to support it while Brunton climbed down to fetch the treasure. Did Rachel deliberately kick the support away, sealing Brunton in, thus murdering him-or did the slab fall by itself and she was only guilty of not getting help to her unfaithful lover? It explained a great deal about her subsequent behaviour. As to the relics found in the bag, Holmes believed that it was no less than King Charles I's crown, being kept for his successor (who, as it turned out, was Charles II). The ritual had been a guide to retrieving this important symbol: Reginald confirms that one of his ancestors, Sir Ralph Musgrave, was a king's man. Holmes theorized that the original holder of the ritual had died before teaching his son about the ritual's significance. It had thus become nothing more than a quaint custom for more than 200 years. Time With Dr. Watson In 1881, John H. Watson, M.D., Late of the Army Medical Department is introduced to Sherlock Holmes, a chemestry student, by a friend. Both Holmes and Watson are looking for a place to live, but neither can afford his own home. The two agree to room together at 221B Baker Street and split the rent. In 1883, Sherlock Holmes wakes Dr. Watson up early one morning, telling him that the housekeeper, Mrs. Hudson, woke him because a client has arrived, a young woman. Watson gets dressed, and they find their client waiting in Holmes's waiting room. She tells them that her name is Helen Stoner, and that she lives with her stepfather, Dr. Grimesby Roylott, the last survivor of the noble Roylott family of Stoke Moran. She explains that her mother met Roylott in India when she and her sister Julia were only two, but on their way back to England, her mother was killed in a railway accident. Despite this, they came to live in Stoke Moran. Holmes also learns that 1,000 pounds of the family money would go to each daughter once they married. Not to long later, though, Julia became engaged, in which she was killed in her very own room. The dying woman's words were: The band! The speckled band! Julia also tells them that Roylott let a gypsy camp stay nearby. After she leaves, Roylott himself appears and threatens Holmes to stay out of his business. Later, Holmes and Watson journey to Stoke Moran and investigate. They make a good observation of everything in Roylott's bedroom, and Helen's bedroom. Helen reveals that her stepfather moved her to Julia's room after her death, which is now her bedroom. Holmes then says that he has solved the case, and tells Helen that he and Watson will be at an inn nearby to catch the killer in the act. That night, Holmes and Watson find a swamp adder snake (the speckled band) trying to kill Helen, at which point Holmes attacks. The adder attacks the first person it sees, which just so happens to be the mastermind behind the case: Roylott. He is killed. Holmes explains how he solved the case, and admits that he was indeed responsible for Roylott's death. The next year, Scotland Yard comes to Holmes for help. The mystery revolves around a corpse found at a derelict house in Brixton, England with the word "RACHE" scrawled in blood on the wall beside the body. Holmes firmly resolves to solve the case despite the fact that he won't be given any credit of it. For this purpose, he makes up a plan using a wedding ring that had been lost at the crime scene. After placing an ad in the newspaper, asking for the ring owner, Holmes is visited by an old woman who claims the ring. Holmes follows "her," who turns out to be a man in disguise, but the man manages to escape. Minutes later, Holmes is visited by one of the police detectives assigned to the case, who claims that the case has been solved and the murderer is now jailed. After the detective finishes explaining how he solved the case, a second police detective (Lestrade) arrives to announce that there has been a second murder - it is clear that the man the police have arrested is innocent. The police are now completely at a loss - both detectives have arrived at dead ends. By way of reply, Holmes announces that he himself has solved the murder and will shortly arrest the killer. Pretending to be packing his bags for a journey, he asks the waiting cab driver to come and assist him with his luggage. As soon as the cab driver appears in his room, however, Holmes takes out his handcuffs and arrests the driver. Proudly he says, "Gentlemen... Let me introduce you to Mr. Jefferson Hope, the murderer of Enoch Drebber and of Joseph Stangerson.". The Mormon Nauvoo Legion, considerably overlapping with the Danites. Throughout the following years, Holmes and Watson go on many different missions. In 1888, Holmes and Watson are asked by Scotland Yard and the local police to consult on the death of John Douglas of Birlstone Manor, Sussex, whose body was found dead in a room of his house, shot in the face with a sawed-off shotgun. Since Birlstone Manor is surrounded by a moat, there is a mystery as to how the murderer came and went. Other clues include an unclaimed bicycle, a single dumbbell, and an appearance of conspiracy between the dead man's wife and his best friend. Eventually Holmes determines that the dead man was not Douglas himself but an enemy who attacked Douglas with the shotgun. Douglas, who is indeed alive, appears from a hiding-place and gives Dr. Watson a narrative he has written up explaining the origins of the enmity between himself and the dead man. This narrative forms the second part of the novel. The plot of Douglas's narrative is based very loosely on the real-life activities of the Molly Maguires and particularly of Pinkerton agent James McParland. In 1875 an Irish Pinkerton agent (Douglas, whose real name is Birdy Edwards) infiltrates a criminal gang, the "Scowrers" (which coincides with the local lodge of the Freemen, a national men's mutual benefit society, and also to some extent with labor union management) in Vermissa Valley, in the Pennsylvania coal fields. The gang is primarily involved in a kind of protection racket extorting large sums of money from local businessmen and mine owners, and it also avenges any slights felt by its members (one mine owner is killed because he refused to employ drunkards). Edwards/Douglas uses the name John McMurdo. He courts his landlord's daughter, winning her love despite a rivalry with another Scowrer. After three months, he has gathered plenty of evidence against the gang. He intercepts, by luck, a warning to a gang member that the famous Pinkerton detective Birdy Edwards is in the region. He turns this around and tells the gang that he has met a man who must be Edwards and that they can trap him. When the gang's ringleaders are assembled waiting for Birdy Edwards to arrive, McMurdo informs them that he is Birdy Edwards; they are all arrested, with the help of the police, who have surrounded the building. Edwards leaves the valley with his beloved Ettie, and they are married. Edwards later became John Douglas, made a fortune in the California gold fields, and retired to England, where he married his second wife. Former Scowrers pursued him in California and then at Birlstone; the man who was killed in the struggle with the shotgun was McMurdo's rival for Ettie twenty years earlier. Holmes realizes that these avengers hired Professor Moriarty to assist them in locating Edwards/Douglas in England, and warns Douglas and his wife that their lives are in danger and they must leave England. In an epilogue, we learn that Douglas has died, apparently washed overboard while fleeing to South Africa.